Man's Search For Meaning

The plaintiffs, represented by Claremont attorney William M. Shernoff, are former Blue Cross members who allege the company reneged on its obligation to pay their medical expenses and dropped them from their plans after authorizing treatment for serious conditions, including breast cancer and heart disease.

The suits accuse Blue Cross of operating a "retroactive review department" that, in an effort to boost profit, systematically cancels policies that result in large claims.

The patients say they were suddenly left with hospital bills, some exceeding $100,000. Some say they've been unable to afford needed follow-up care because their coverage was dropped.

They allege that Blue Cross scours years of medical records after expensive claims have been submitted, looking for innocent misstatements and omissions to use as pretext to rescind coverage and escape expensive bills.

The suits also accuse Blue Cross of using a vague, confusing and ambiguous medical history questionnaire in an effort to trick applicants into making mistakes that the company can use later to dump them.

In the coming issue of The New Republic, I have a review of Charles Murray's new book: In Our Hands. It's a doozy of a document -- the crypto-eugenicist last noticed for the Bell Curve fame demanding that we liquidate the American welfare state, plow the savings into $10,000 checks, and conduct all our health care bargaining individually with private insurers. He doesn't believe this simply because it'll save American health care (though, according to him, it will), but because it will imbue our lives with a depth, texture, and meaning that reliance on government bureaucrats has robbed us of. And I'm sure the plaintiffs of the above lawsuit would agree.